Let’s talk about the OnePlus 5

OnePlus has announced its latest flagship smartphone, the OnePlus 5, a few weeks ago and is now available for pre-ordering. With the smartphone market slowly starting to warm up with competitions, will OnePlus 5 be able to win the hearts of the consumers steering them away from the other flagship smartphones by the bigger brands like Samsung, LG and Sony? So let’s talk about the OnePlus 5 before you pre-order.

The OnePlus 5 is the smartphone that packs more than just a punch. It is giving consumers what they want and more with a slightly cheaper price tag than the other brands, which are charging us more because of their marketing expenses. In it packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Octa-core CPU, Adreno 540 GPU and runs on the latest Oxygen OS based on the Android Nougat 7.1.1. The OnePlus 5 comes with a 6GB of RAM with 64GB of internal storage version and a version with an 8GB of RAM with 128GB of internal storage. So you can expect fluidity when you game on this device with no problems. But you do have to take note that it only houses a 3,300 mAh non-removable battery. It’s not that bad but if you always love pushing your smartphones to their limits in terms of battery life, it is better to have an additional OnePlus-branded charger with you wherever you go to leverage on the Dash Charge.

Like many other smartphones nowadays, except for the Samsung Galaxy S8, the main focus of their new flagships also revolves around their cameras.

Following the footsteps of the Apple iPhone and the LG G6, the OnePlus 5 also has a set of dual cameras, which the design and layout interestingly resemble the iPhone 7 Plus. However, what is so different about the OnePlus 5’s version is what’s embedded in the smartphone – “a 16 MP sensor (f1.7 aperture), supported by a 20 MP sensor with a telephoto lens (f2.6 aperture).” At its front, it has a 16 MP sensor with an aperture of f2.0.

The OnePlus 5 also has a Portrait Mode (sound familiar?), which can focus on your subject and deliver the “professional depth of field (bokeh).” Unfortunately, there is no image stabilisation for this smartphone so you may need to shutter your shot to make sure you get a clearer image.

Besides the cameras, the Oxygen OS that the OnePlus 5 is running on also has a few tricks up its sleeves.

Reading Mode – “utilises an ambient sensor and grayscale mapping to make reading as comfortable as reading an actual book.” Much like reading on a Kindle.

Gaming Do Not Disturb – “allows users to play their games without being disrupted by notifications or accidental hardware button presses.” This is something they should also do it for watching YouTube or videos too.

We love how OnePlus has remained competitive in a market dominated by bigger brands with much more marketing budget. With the OnePlus 5, they have just set a new standard by offering a 6GB RAM/64GB storage version and an 8GB/128GB storage version that none of the bigger names is offering in the market right now.

The specifications of the OnePlus 5 are one of the best you can find among all the other smartphones and with a cheaper price tag, this is definitely a must get if you are looking to recontract your smartphone soon.

Price and availability

We are unsure when the two models – Midnight Black version (8 GB RAM / 128 GB storage) and the Slate Gray version (6 GB RAM / 64GB storage) – will be available in our local (SGP) retail outlets yet. But you can preorder it on Lazada now.

The Midnight Black version will be selling for USD 539 and the Slate Gray version will be going for USD 479.